


Voltron: Legendary Wizards

by lightningrani



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ends by chapter 6 though, Gen, Misgendering, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Tags will update with fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:00:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7891285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningrani/pseuds/lightningrani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story starts the same. An alien ship crashes near the Garrison. Five people find a  blue robotic lion hidden in the desert. </p><p>But when wizardry is involved, the battle against Zarkon becomes more than saving Earth. It means fighting for more time for the universe to survive.</p><p>Young Wizards/Voltron fusion. Based off Season One materials, but will diverge as necessary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ship crashes. Hunk, Pidge, and Lance react. And a secret is revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If dialogue sounds similar, it was taken directly from episode 1.

Sometimes, Hunk wondered why he decided to be friends with Lance.

Lance was loud, Lance was outgoing, and worst of all, Lance likes to get into trouble.

Then again, it was kind of Hunk's fault that Lance noticed him in the first place. After all, Hunk let out a high-pitched yelp when Lance decided to slide up to him during lunch and say, “Hey there, my big, lovable hunk of an engineer. What’s chillin’? ”.

Hunk could take comments like that. He had to get used to those comments the moment that Lance became his pilot. What he couldn’t take was the fact that Lance said it in the Speech.  Where did he even learn those slang words from?

Lance wasn’t used to that reaction at all. Most of the times, he just got comments about his amazing linguistic skills. Apparently he was generally a good judge of who was a wizard, and avoided randomly talking in the Speech with them.

(Hunk wasn’t sure if he should take that as a compliment or not.)

And now his friendship has led him to follow Lance in the middle of the night to tail one of their fellow crewmates. Pidge might be a bit aloof, but that didn’t mean they had to tail him. Especially since the only reason Lance wanted to talk to him was to convince Pidge to do some ‘team bonding’, whatever Lance meant by that.

Pidge was sitting near the edge of the room, next to a pretty complicated computer set-up, in Hunk’s opinion. He had worked with complicated set-ups as an engineer, after all.

Lance was extremely happy to have finally cornered his quarry. “Pidge! You come up here to rock out?”

Pidge nearly fell off the roof. “Oh, hey, Lance, Hunk. Just looking at the stars.”

“Where’d you get this stuff? It doesn’t look like Garrison tech,” Hunk said, itching to get his hands on it.

Pidge shrugged. “I built it.”

“You built all of this?” Lance yelped.  

“Yup. Hunk, don’t you dare put your hands on my tech.” Hunk gave Pidge his best puppy-dog eyes. Pidge continued to explain. “With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system.”

“That right? Let me guess, all the way to Kerberos? What’s your deal with that? You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up.”

“Second warning, Hunk!” Pidge had noticed Hunk’s stealthy approach towards the customized equipment. Hunk gave Pidge his most pitiful look.

“Seriously, Pidge, if you want to succeed, we need to work together. And to do that, we need to bond as a team. We can’t have any secrets.”

Pidge mulled it over for a few seconds. Just the time Hunk needed to plan his final approach. “Fine. The world as you know it is about to change.”

Hunk finally, finally got a good luck at whatever Pidge was doing. And immediately yelped when he realized what was in front of him.

“You’re coding in the Speech?”

Pidge spluttered. “What—the Speech? I have no idea—”

“Your syntax seems pretty weird,” Lance commented, looking over Pidge’s shoulder to get a better look. “Is it modified to better work with electronics? Wait, is there a specific way to use the Speech to code?"

Pidge groaned. “Dai, cousins?”

“Actually, only Hunk is a wizard. But I guess we’re all cousins, aren’t we?”

“I thank the Powers that Be that they had enough wisdom to not offer Lance the Oath,” Pidge muttered under his breath.

“Hey! I would have made a great wizard.”

“I guess that explains why this is your own tech. Garrison tech can’t really handle code in the Speech,” Hunk said, interrupting the two before it escalated further. “But why are you up here?”

“Yeah, how does being a wizard relate to Kerberos?”

“It doesn’t, except it makes the reveal a bit less shocking. The Kerberos mission failed because of aliens.”

Hunk spluttered. “What? But why would any aliens interfere with Earth like that? I thought they were excited at our technological growth!”

“It took a bit of digging; the Manual has been light on the details for some reason, but whatever aliens were involved, they aren’t our usual cousins. Possibly a group working for the Lone Power.” Pidge frowned. “I’ve been using this equipment in an attempt to get more information, but the only thing I’ve been picking up is the word ‘Voltron’. I have no idea what that’s referring to, and the Manual’s been no help.”

“That doesn’t seem right. It’s the Manual. It should know everything.” Should being the operative word. There are always those moments where the Manual hides things. Kerberos led to this being quite well known among wizards in their generation. There was a wizard on the mission, and everyone wanted to know what happened to him. But the Manual said nothing, and no one knew why.

Before Lance could interrupt—just because he knew the Speech didn’t mean he knew the inner dealings of wizards—a voice blared over the PA.

“This is not a drill. We are on lockdown!”

“Oh god, we’re going to be in so much trouble if we get caught,” Hunk whimpered.

“Um, guys, what’s that? A meteor?” Lance asked, shakily pointing at the sky.

Pidge pulled out some binoculars from somewhere, and looked in that direction. And swore. “It’s a ship. And it’s not ours?”

“Here, let me take a look—” Hunk said, grabbing the lens out of Pidge’s hands. Not many species still use ships for travel, especially with worldgates up and running, but he made it his job to be familiar with the ones which were still used.

The ship crashed into the ground, and when the dust cleared, it only took Hunk a second to figure it out.

“That’s not a ship used by any nearby species. I’m not sure if it’s a design used by any species I’ve studied.”

“Hey, give the normal person a chance to do something!” Lance snatched the binoculars from Hunk and peered through them. “Did you upgrade these too, Pidge? I don’t know if I’ve seen anything with this range.”

“I did a bit of tinkering. What do you see down there?”

“Lots of guards. And a pretty lady!” Pidge smacked Lance. “Hey! Anyway, there’s no way we can get through that, unless you guys want to pull out your magical wizardry spells for this.”

Hunk has always preferred the more cautious approach. And in another life, where he had no other information to go on, he would suggest for them to turn around. After all, the Garrison had it covered, right? But too many things didn’t add up, and as a wizard, as a person who took the Oath, he had the duty to make things right.

Pidge started quickly typing on his computer. “Might as well take a look at what’s there… Let me hack into the camera feeds. Here, take a look.”

Tied to metal bench was someone Hunk had never expected to see. “Is that… who I think it is?”

“It can’t be,” Pidge whispered.

“Please, tell me what’s going on!” Lance whined.

The year had taken more out of Shiro than Hunk expected. His face was scarred, and some of his hair had turned white. The video quality wasn’t that great, but Hunk could make out the panic in his eyes. What had happened to him?

“Calm down, Shiro,” Iverson said, his voice tinny because of the audio feed. “We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests.”

“Shiro? The pilot of the Kerberos mission? He’s my hero!” Lance exclaimed.

“Lucky for you, your hero is a wizard,” Pidge said dryly.

“Then why did you not rescue him?” Lance yelled. “He looks like he’s been through hell!”

“Because we couldn’t,” Hunk said. “The Manual… well, sometimes the Manual doesn’t tell us anything. And that’s what happened with Shiro. We didn’t know if he was alive or dead or… somewhere else.”

Lance huffed. “Seems like your Manual thing needs an update or something, because it’s missing a lot of information.”

“Do you know how long you’ve been gone?” Iverson asked casually, as if this was a normal conversation.

“I don’t know. Months? Years? Look, there’s no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They’ll destroy us. We have to find Voltron.” Shiro strained at his restraints, his panic growing with every second.

“Whoa whoa whoa did Shiro just break the code of silence or something? You aren’t supposed to tell people about aliens, right?” Lance asked.

“If I’m right, Shiro ran into aliens because of the Garrison. Talking about things which he experienced outside of being a wizard is fine to talk about, even if our planet is sevarfrith.” Pidge said the last word with practiced ease; seems like he’s had to explain Earth’s secrecy about wizardry before. Maybe he's spent some time out of the solar system. Hunk preferred to stay closer to home.

“So you think he was captured by aliens? What could aliens do to keep a wizard of Shiro’s caliber in their grasp? How could they do that?” Hunk had done many things. His Ordeal, the various times he had to face the Lone One, being on a rollercoaster… But the idea of facing aliens who had kept Shiro, the Takashi Shirogane, for a year was by far the most terrifying thing he had faced in his life.

A voice came from Pidge’s laptop, interrupting their thoughts. “Sir, take a look at this.” The three of them returned their attention to the screen. “It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic.”

“Put his under,” Iverson commanded, ignoring Shiro’s complaints.

“They didn’t even ask about the other two crew members,” Pidge muttered.

“We have to get him out.” Lance and Pidge turned to look at Hunk, shocked. “Listen, I know I’m usually the voice of reason here, but there’s something major happening here. Something important. We need to know more about what’s happening, Pidge, so we can tell the local Seniors, anyone who has connections to the higher ups. They need to be prepared.”

“Well, what do you suggest? It’s going to take some time to get invisibility or disguises up, especially if Lance doesn’t know his name in the Speech. And he might not want to answer some of the more… awkward questions.” Pidge started typing away at his computer, pulling up what looked like his version of the Manual. “So, Lance, what was your favorite toy as a child?”

“Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, cause a distraction of some sort?” Lance asked instead, avoiding the question. “If we drew attention away from the ship, it would make it easier for us to get in.”

As if on cue, an explosion rocked the desert.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith joins the group, and they go on an adventure. In a cave!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, I tried to write ahead to prevent issues in updating. And I have, like, 7 chapters written? Turns out updating stuff can be difficult. I apologize.
> 
> Anyway, next update should be next week.

If someone asked Keith why he decided to blow up a bunch of motorcycles in order to get into a crashed ship, he really wouldn’t have a good answer. He really didn’t have a good answer for a lot of things he had been doing this past year. First, he got kicked out of the Garrison, then he decided to shape his life by following random ‘energy’ in the desert, whatever that was, and now this?

If he had parents, Keith was pretty sure they would be disappointed in him.

Then again, without those feelings, he wouldn’t have found Shiro.

Keith learned that there would be something momentous happening today from the carvings he found in the cave. He wasn’t sure why they were into lions, especially since lions weren’t native to the area, but they knew their stuff. But they didn’t say exactly what he would find.

Shiro was a somewhat pleasant surprise. Keith, like the rest of the world, thought Shiro had died on Kerberos. To see him alive… it was something out of a dream. If he dreamt of Shiro have a robotic arm and white hair. And had him lugging three random cadets on the back of his motorcycle.

… Yup, definitely not a dream.

“So, what happened out there, Shiro? Where were you?” Pidge asked, startling Keith out of his reverie. Shiro was standing in front of the window, staring at the sky, almost as if he was memorizing what it looked like. Maybe he was. After all, he had spent a year off-planet.

“I don’t remember. My head’s pretty scrambled. I was on an alien ship, but then I somehow escaped. But more importantly… Keith, how did you find me?”

If it was someone other than Shiro, he probably wouldn’t have given him a straight answer. But since it was…

“I can’t explain it. I kind of found myself drawn out of this place, after I was booted from the Garrison.” Shiro gave him a concerned look, but let him continue. “It was like some energy was telling me to search. And then I found these caves, covered in ancient markings. They talk about a blue lion, and all of them mention this event. So I came prepared, and then you showed up.”

Pidge frowned. “How could you read them? It doesn’t look like any language I’ve seen.”

Keith shrugged. “I guess I just did a good job of interpreting the pictures.”

The three boys shared a look. Keith frowned to himself. Did he do something wrong?

“Well, thank you Keith,” Shiro said with a nod. “And thanks to you three again. Your names are…?”

Pidge grinned. “I’m Pidge. The big guy’s Hunk, and the guy trying to kill Keith with his eyes is Lance.” Ignoring Lance’s yelp of protest—seriously, what did Lance have against him?—Pidge continued. “Do you what happened to the rest of the crew?”

Shiro shook his head. “I’m not sure. I remember the mission and being captured, but after that… it’s all just bits and pieces.”

“But you do remember stuff about the aliens, right? The aliens that took you?” Hunk said, worry evident in his voice.

“Only that they’re looking for Voltron, the name of some kind of powerful weapon.”

Lance snorted. “We already knew that from Pidge. Thanks a bunch.” Everyone except Shiro glared at Lance. “What?”

“You seriously insulted the guy who was kidnapped for a year by aliens?” Pidge said incredulously. Much to Keith’s amusement, that caused Lance to fall apart. Insulting his hero was apparently a breaking point.

Shiro coughed, getting everyone’s attention again. “The point is, we need to find it before they do.”

“Me and Pidge have a lead,” Hunk said quickly. “Pidge showed me some of his data, and well… some of the numbers the aliens are searching for like a Fraunhofer line. It’s a number describing the emission of an element, but the element they’re describing isn’t on that normally exists on Earth. It might be coming from this Voltron thing they’re looking for.”

“Hunk, you big, gassy genius!” Lance exclaimed, wrapping Hunk in a bear hug. Keith shivered. How could Hunk stand hugs like that?

“Really, I wouldn’t have figured it out if Pidge didn’t help,” Hunk stammered out. Digging through his pockets, he pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I drew the waveform out; it’s pretty unique, in my opinion.”

Keith grabbed it out of Hunk’s hands as soon as he recognized it, and lined it up with one of the many pictures in his room. “What are the chances of a waveform matching a natural formation exactly?”

**

Shiro knew that if he stopped moving, he would probably collapse and fall asleep. And that couldn’t happen. He had to be strong, for the group. Not only was the oldest one, he also had the most experience, fighting-wise, life-wise, and… wizardry-wise.

God, how much he missed wizardry. Whoever ran the ship he was held prisoner on, had dealings with the Lone Power. Especially when you’re a wizard.

So now, here he was, back on his home planet, happy to return to a (relatively) normal life… only to learn that two of the four people under his command were wizards as well. They were able to talk after Keith kicked him out of his house, saying he needed time to ‘collect his thoughts’.

“We thought you should know… me and Hunk are wizards,” Pidge said. “Lance knows about wizardry, but isn’t one himself. If you need us to cover for you, just give us the word. We’ll keep Keith occupied.”

Shiro blinked. He could see the strategic value in knowing who was on his crew, to play to their strengths and weaknesses, but the last remark made no sense. “Why would you need to cover for me? We have to look for Voltron. If we have to visibly use wizardry in order to protect ourselves, Keith has a right to know.”

“Well, we thought you might want to talk to some people. Tell them you’re alive and somewhat well?” Hunk said carefully.

Shiro shook his head. “There’s no time. And anyway, I’m on errantry. There’s not much time for social visits, especially considering what we might be facing.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Those Powers that Be or whatever they’re called… they put you on errantry after all you’ve been through?” Lance had been listening to the conversation, knowing that it wasn’t his place to comment on a wizard’s business, but apparently this was his limit.

“Lance, the Powers that Be are beings who live outside of time. They know why I need to be involved. Even if it doesn’t make sense right now, it must make sense in the bigger picture.” Shiro didn’t say what he was really thinking: that the Powers that Be didn’t put him on errantry when he landed. They just didn’t take him off errantry since the Kerberos mission went wrong. During his time in the ship, the times that he couldn’t really remember… he had been on errantry the whole time. “Pidge, Hunk, it’s likely you’re on errantry as well, though I haven’t checked.”

It only took them a few seconds to confirm.

“How did you know, Shiro?” Lance asked curiously. “You don’t have one of those Manual things, as far as I can tell.”

“I used to have my Manual on my comm, but before the Kerberos mission, I started to use a peridexis instead.” Considering how his year went, it was probably for the better. A physical Manual can always be destroyed, but it’s much harder to destroy something in his head. Though suppressing wizardry is one good way to do so.

Still, when things got tough, when he wanted to give up, the peridexis was always there to remind him what he was fighting for.

Lance squinted. “Isn’t that the thing which talks in your head?”

“It’s literally the spirit of wizardry, Lance,” Pidge said. “Do you really want to make fun of that?”

Shiro then had to use his amazing leadership skills to stop the two from fighting like children.

The point was, this was not the situation he wanted to be in. If he had to face an alien race that held him captive, Shiro would want his friends at his back. The people he worked with. People with experience, expertise, and, more importantly, people he could trust.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust these kids. He just… didn’t know them. They were what he had to work with.  They were all he had in this fight.

And he was going to do his damn best to keep them alive.

“Shiro?”

Keith’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. He couldn’t believe that he led his guard down. Who knows what could have happened?

“What’s up?”

“We’ve reached the caves. Ready to enter?”

Why had they waited for them? They could have entered without him. And then he looked at their faces and realized the truth.

They waited because he was their leader.

“Right, everyone, let’s go. Keep your eyes opened.” Lance strolled in first, with Pidge and Hunk following right behind them, scanning the area with the equipment they threw together. Keith waited for Shiro to enter, before following him.

“These carvings are extremely intricate, Keith. I can’t believe they’re in such good condition. But I’m not sure how you figured out what you did. Where did you get the information from?”

Keith shrugged. “It wasn’t too hard. There was some writing over there which helped,” Keith said, pointing to some scribbles in the corner. “It explained a lot.”

“How did you know what it said?” Shiro said, amazed. “That doesn’t look like any language I know about.” And even the Speech wasn’t helping, either. Shiro knew the Manual had its limits, but there had to be a reason why he was stumbling into them now. How were these things connected?

Keith shrugged once more. “It just… made sense. I don’t really have a good explanation why. Magic?”

Shiro let out a weak laugh. “Magic? Right. Like that exists.”

As if on cue, the walls started glowing blue.

“That definitely didn’t happen the last time I was here,” Keith said slowly. He looked ahead, and glared. “Lance, what did you do?”

“Hey, why are you blaming me?” Lance yelled back. Keith growled and rushed forward. Shiro sighed and followed after him. Sometimes, Keith acted like he was five.

By the time Shiro reached them, the only reason the two weren’t fighting was because Hunk was standing in between them. “To be fair to Lance, the only thing he did was touch the walls,” Pidge explained to the two. “There’s really no way he could have known it would cause this.”

“Yeah, seriously, Keith, calm down. I know that I’m your biggest competition—”

“A duck could fly a plane better than you!”

“Guys, calm down!” Shiro yelled. “There are more important things to do right now that fighting!”

This was, of course, when the floor decided to fall from underneath their feet.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a new ride, and he's loving it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only two days late! Improvement?

Really, the only thing which could make Lance’s day better was if a pretty lady fell on his lap and confessed her undying love to him.

Because. Seriously. He’s piloting a GIANT. BLUE. LION.

How could he not be excited?

It was a good way to recover from being attacked by Keith. Seriously, was he that insecure about his position in the group? And then the floor fell out beneath them! Which just made everything worse.

Until he saw it. The giant, blue lion. Of course, it was protected by a giant shield, but there were three wizards with him! Though maybe they couldn’t do much with Keith around...

Lance, sitting comfortably in the pilot's seat, briefly considered what would have happened if he told Keith about wizardry, standing in front of his future new ride, and then imagined the fallout. He shuddered. It was probably better that things turned out the way it did.

The wizards themselves were stumped by the shield. Pidge was typing away at his computer, while both Shiro and Hunk stared at it, as if it was a puzzle which they could solve with their eyes.

“Is this Voltron?” Keith asked.

“It must be,” Pidge said. “It must be what’s causing all this crazy energy out here.”

“But how do we get past this shield?” Keith asked.

“Well, maybe we just need to knock,” Lance said with a smirk, and strolled up to the shield to do exactly that. He wasn’t expecting anything to happen—he’s not a wizard, after all—but it turns a knock was all that it needed.

Or maybe a knock from him, since the blue lion made it clear who was going to be their pilot. When he could get Hunk alone, Lance was going to ask him so many questions.

But back to the present. Where he was controlling a GIANT BLUE LION. Lance still couldn’t get over it.  Everyone was screaming—from fun!—except for Hunk who was trying not to throw up. Maybe he should take it a bit slower.

But the lion was pretty clear in their intentions, urging him to continue moving forward, towards a goal which they needed to reach. Lance knew the lion was alive, from the way it nudged him as he held the flight controls, to the random burst of emotions that he would get when shots got too close. It wasn't true communication, but it worked, for now.

“Do you really want me to throw up inside the lion’s head?” Hunk yelled.

Sighing, Lance toned down his flying a bit. Hunk could be such a downer sometimes.

“Now that someone has decided to fly like a normal person—” Keith said, glaring at Lance.

“Hey!” Lance yelped. “You try to pilot a giant cat robot!” Well, okay, maybe some of the rocky flying was his fault. The lion was trying to correct for his errors when it could.  Maybe Lance should thank it later.

Keith rolled his eyes, ignoring him. “I want to make sure I got everything straight. This… lion is only a part of Voltron. We need five lions to make this ultimate weapon. And we have no idea where the other four are.”

“And I doubt that the aliens are going to leave the Earth alone even if no other lions are here,” Shiro said. “We need to take this fight away from the civilians.”

“Azura’s got a lock on one of their ships. Let’s meet them before they get any closer.”

“Azura?” Keith asked, confused.

“Yeah, it’s like blue, but feminine.” Even though that wasn’t the real reason he named it that. May Keith never learn the real reason behind the name.

… May Pidge never learn the real reason behind the name. Because, oh god, Pidge would never let it go.

“When did you decide on this name?” Pidge asked, curious.

“Just right now. Isn’t it great?”

They just stared at him, probably from awe of his great naming skills. Shiro was the one who broke the silence. “We don’t have any other leads. Let’s listen to… Azura then, and head towards the ship. Lance?”

“You guys should buckle in, because this is going to be a hell of a ride,” Lance said with a wicked grin.

“Seriously?” Hunk groaned.

Luckily for Lance, Hunk somehow didn’t throw up during the ride. There was a lot of yelling though. And he was pretty sure Keith tried to yank out some of his hair. The nerve of that man… But they made it there alive! And they were being chased by a giant alien ship!

On second thought, that was probably a bad thing.

“Um, guys, they’re gaining on us,” Pidge said worriedly, rapidly typing in his computer. Probably doing some weird wizardry things.

“And they’re not even trying to shoot us,” Hunk pointed out. “This is weird.”

“It’s possible they want this ship in as good of a condition as they can get it,” Shiro said. “At least they’re moving away from Earth.”

“Where are we, anyway?” Keith asked. “That doesn’t look like any planet I know of.”

Pidge looked around. “I think we’re at the edge of our local system. This usually takes our ships months to get here. It took us… approximately five minutes? This lion is extremely powerful, and fast.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t live in a ship forever,” Keith muttered. “We need to get out of here, and fast.”

“We can’t outspeed them, though,” Pidge pointed out. “There has to be another way to get out.”

“Lance, what does Azura suggest?” Shiro asked.

“Well, uh, there’s something on this screen, but I can’t make heads or tails of it.” Lance recognized that it was in the Speech, but it wasn’t the kind he was used to. It was what wizards used to command the world. He squinted. Did that say something about moving something?

It wasn’t like he could ask Hunk, Pidge, or even Shiro what it said. They probably knew exactly what was on his screen, and could tell him exactly what it meant.  But Keith was there, and they were trying to keep things quiet.

A button flashed helpfully on his dashboard. It seems like Azura wanted him to press it. It probably activated the wizardry currently on-screen. Well, it shouldn’t hurt. Azura wouldn’t, like, send them into space to die. At least, Azura wouldn’t send him into space to die.

Lance and Azura had a bond. A bond which had existed for minutes, but a bond nonetheless.

“Well, uh, I’m just… going to push this button?” Lance said slowly, giving Hunk a chance to say something if it looked bad.

Shiro shrugged. “It’s our best chance,” he said. “Go for it.”

Well, it looked like things were safe. Carefully, Lance pressed it down.

For a second, it was like the universe bent in on them, crowding around them as if it was listening to something. It lasted for a second, a second which dragged on forever.

When it ended, they were definitely not in their solar system anymore. At least, Lance assumed that was what happened, considering the sudden existence of tiny planets in the distance which weren’t there before.

“Well, looks like that went well. Azura’s got everything under control, it seems,” Lance said.

Keith frowned. “You weren’t sure what it would do? But it was clearly written in the Speech, right there.”

“Well, excuse me for not understanding complicated wizardry Speech writing!” Lance shot back without thinking.  And then froze, realizing what he said.

And then swore, when he realized what it meant.

“What the hell, Keith? Why didn’t you tell any of us you’re a wizard? Am I really the only non-wizard on this crew? Aw, come on!”

**

“Sir, the Blue Lion has disappeared from our radar entirely. If our readings are correct, it is no longer in this solar system.”

Zarkon nodded curtly. “I suspected that much.”

“… Sir?”

“Ready the troops. It seems that the paladins are truly back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Azura is a reference to Fire Emblem: Fates, because I like video games *side-eye*. Lance is now a retro weeb. I am sorry.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who's given me info regarding the YW universe. I probably should know it better than I currently do, but you realize you need to know very specific things when writing fic sometimes. So, thanks.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is a little bit confused. Everyone learns a lot in the flying lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a mention about Keith being Irish. He's not (ethnicity is currently vague canon-wise and fic-wise), but the reason I bring it up in text is because Keith's attitude reminds me of a Young Wizards character, Ronan, and so he's kind of become my mental picture for him *side-eye*.
> 
> Also, hello! Delays happened because of life, Pokemon Moon (Pokemon is my first fandom), and then guilt. Hopefully I can make it up to you during the holiday season.

Things Keith didn’t like to deal with: angry people yelling at him.

Things Keith really didn’t like to deal with: angry people yelling at him in an enclosed space after they had left Earth and the galaxy that they grew up.

Pidge was asking him questions—so many questions—at a speed which was kind of frightening. Hunk was staring at him with big eyes. Shiro… Shiro was looking at him with worry.

And Lance was having a fit. Keith was surprised they hadn’t crashed into a planet yet, but maybe Blue had taken over controls for now. There was no way Lance was paying attention to where they were going the way he was acting.

“Lance, for god’s sake, calm down,” Shiro said finally, taking control of the situation.  “Azura obviously has a destination in mind. Keep an eye out for danger and make sure we get there safely. Keith, how long have you been a wizard?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Keith said. “What do you mean by wizardry?”

Lance spluttered. “You… you got to be kidding me. You have to know what’s going on.” Lance turned to Shiro. “Tell me Keith’s making this up.”

Pidge pushed up his glasses. “Keith, you’re what, sixteen? Most people go on their Ordeal when they’re ten, eleven? You have to have been a wizard for a least a few years.”

“You don’t need to be afraid, Keith,” Shiro said calmly. “Me, Pidge, and Hunk are all practitioners of the Art, and Lance already knows everything. There’s no need to hide anything.”

Keith just looked at them, confused. What they were talking about made no sense at all. Wizardry? Ordeal? None of this made sense.

“There is one possibility that we haven’t considered, Shiro,” Hunk said quietly. “Late-onset Ordeal.”

Shiro blinked. “He’s cutting it really close, then. And why now? Is it because of Voltron? The Powers do work in mysterious ways.”

“Could someone explain to me what’s going on?” Keith interrupted. “What are you guys even talking about?”

Pidge sighed. “Did you read anything recently which talked about a power which could fight evil? Something which could be used to balance the scales, make the world better? Maybe you found it in your comm, or on your computer, or—”

“The cave,” Keith said finally, remembering something. “That was what was written on the cave walls. All this stuff about a power which could fight back against evil, something which was both a gift and a burden, a power you could only gain after proving yourself worthy by defeating evil itself… I thought it was a legend or something like that.”

“And did you read something out loud, after you read all that?” Pidge said patiently. “Maybe it started with ‘In Life’s Name and for Life’s Sake?’”

“No, but… that just came to me, in my head,” Keith said, slowly. He remembered it quite clearly. The words on the side of the wall made him think. If he could do something to make things right, to fix what was wrong, why shouldn’t he? Why shouldn’t he fight against evil? And then… some words came to him. Words which were a promise, an oath to do something right.

In that moment, it made total sense to say them out loud. Even if later, Keith just looked back at that moment in utter confusion. What did he expect to happen? Why did he even say those words?

For a good reason, apparently.

“Wait, so you’re saying that Keith’s a baby wizard?” Lance yelped. “We literally have a wizard on Ordeal with us? Am I going to die?”

“Lance, please calm down and focus on piloting Azura.” Shiro looked at Keith. “Has anything else weird happened lately? Anything at all?”

Keith shrugged. “Nothing really stands out.” Other than riding in a giant blue robotic lion, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t what Shiro was asking about. “Now will someone please explain to me what’s going on?”

Shiro sighed. “You’re a wizard, Keith. The story you read? Is real. You’re now bound to fight evil, and are about to face evil yourself. But you don’t have to do it by yourself. You have me, and Hunk, and Pidge to support you.”

“Where’s his Manual?” Hunk asked, curious.

“Based off what Keith’s said, it seems like he has something similar to the Knowledge, like Irish wizards has. Not exactly a peridexis, but access to information when needed,” Pidge said.

“Is Keith even Irish? And haven’t most Irish wizards moved to comms as well?” Hunk responded.

“That’s not important,” Shiro interrupted. “Lance, where are we headed?”

“To a nearby planet. Shouldn’t take us longer than a few minutes to reach there.”

“Name?”

“Um, Arus?”

“Is… Azura picking up anything?”

Lance frowned as he tried to puzzle through the words scrolling on the screen. “I think she wants to go towards that castle?”

Blue eventually landed in front of the building. While Keith had a good description of what the building would be like, for whatever reason, his Manual (Knowledge? Gut? Who knows what he was supposed to call it) didn’t give him any information about how it looked. It really was a castle, spires looming above them. It looked like something out of a fantasy novel.

There was, however, no way to enter.

All five of them carefully walked out of Blue’s mouth, keeping their eyes open. Shiro was the most attentive of the five, twitching in every direction whenever he heard or saw anything.

“How do we get in?” Pidge asked, staring at the castle. “I don’t see any doors or windows which we can use—”

Suddenly, Blue roared, startling everyone. It looked like Shiro tried to pull a non-existent gun out of a non-existent holster.

Keith glared at Lance. “Thanks for warning us, Lance.”

“Hey!” Lance said, affronted. “I may be tight with Azura, but I’m not that tight. She did that of her own free will.”

“And why would she do that?” Keith gritted out.

“Probably to open the door,” Pidge said. “Apparently the castle required some sort of voice print—”

“Okay, already bored,” Lance said, striding towards the new entryway. “Maybe we’ll find the other lions here!”

Shiro sighed. “Lance, we need to be careful. Don’t just go waltzing around like you own the place.”

“Hey, my giant blue robot lion opened the doors to the castle. It’s mine now.”

Keith sighed. This was going to be a long trip.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group explores the castle, and finds some unexpected inhabitants inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um. Hi?
> 
> So a few things about this fic:  
> 1\. I actually have up to Chapter 9 written, so you'll at least get those posted before I disappear off the web again. So, daily updates until Nov 5th. If I counted right.  
> 2\. I'm doing a personal NaNo with the goal of writing a chapter/oneshot a day, so more chapters should come.   
> 3\. I'm not going past season 2, mostly because I like having Zarkon as the Final Boss. Also, I haven't watched Season 3. Or 4. So there's an endpoint in sight at least?
> 
> I'm really not sure how one apologizes for disappearing for almost a year, so... yeah. Enjoy?

Pidge had been a wizard for a while. Before they learned about Keith—which, frankly, would have surprised anyone, since late-onset Ordeals were rare—they were the one with the least experience on the team, purely by age.

But Pidge was pretty sure something was up. 

They were in a castle. A high-tech castle which was big enough to support an army. In a part of their universe, which, as far as anyone could tell, was so far away from their home galaxy that Pidge expected Keith to keel over from exhaustion from just assisting Blue in reaching here. His power levels, even on Ordeal, shouldn’t have been enough to get there.

Unless there was some subsidization happening. Unless there was more going on.

But that could wait. The team found two high-tech pods in what seemed to be a control room.  This was Pidge’s time to shine. 

“Okay, guys, give me a few minutes, and I can tell you exactly what this building is made up,” Pidge said confidently, cracking their knuckles.

“Or we could ask the people here already?” Hunk said slowly, staring behind Pidge.

What?

Oh. In their excitement, Pidge missed the fact that the pods held people in them.  Yeah, they probably wouldn’t like it if Pidge ransacked their computers for information.

“Wait, so those guys aren’t dead?” Lance asked, peering close at the pods.

“They look like stasis pods to me,” Hunk confirmed. “As soon as they open, the inhabitants will wake up and return to normal functioning.”

Lance knocked on the door of one of the pods. “And how do they open?”

Apparently, by knocking, as the door suddenly slid open and a young humanoid with female sex characteristics fell into Lance’s arms, yelling “Father!” in the Speech.

Pidge was pretty sure Lance would have been a lot happier about the situation if it wasn’t for the last part.

“Hello,” Lance replied back, in the same language, with his trademark smirk. Pidge groaned. God, now everyone was going to have to deal with Lance’s flirting in space now?

“Who are you? Where am I?”

“I’m Lance. And you’re right here in my arms.”

The moment, however, was broken by said person, who pushed themselves out of Lance’s arms. “Your ears.. you’re not Altean. Who are you? Where is King Alfor? And what are you doing in my castle?”

Lance pouted. Pidge sighed, and responded for him, also in the Speech. They hoped Keith was staying on top of this. “A giant blue lion brought us here. That’s all we know.”

“The Blue Lion? How do you have it? What happened to its paladin?” The word the humanoid used was best translated to paladin in English; the literal translation was ‘one that served the lions in the Power’s name’.

“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shiro cut in, apparently deciding to take control of this conversation. “Why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.”

The humanoid stood up tall and proud. “I am Princess Allura, future ruler of the planet Altea.” Oh, great, a princess. Lance was going to hit on her nonstop, wasn’t he? “It is obvious things haven’t gone as we hoped. I need to find out where we are and how long it’s been since we were put in stasis.”

Pidge looked over Allura’s shoulder as she activated the system. “Oh. So that’s how it works,” they said, as the second stasis pod opened. Out fell a masculine-looking humanoid with a very large orange mustache.  Pidge decided to let the others handle that so they could focus on what Allura was doing. The computer system didn’t seem too difficult to handle, especially since the whole interface was in the Speech. First, it seemed like Allura checked the location of the castle, and then ran through diagnostics to make sure everything was working okay. She paused for a bit, hesitant to run the command that would tell her how long it has been. When she did, however…

“It can’t be. We’ve been asleep for 10,000 years, Coran,” she said, talking to the other stasis pod inhabitant, who was, for some inexplicable reason, arguing with Lance.

“Ten thousand years?” Lance yelled. “What the hell happened here?”

Wordlessly, Allura projected a holographic image showing her last moments before being shoved into the stasis pod. Pidge could almost feel the betrayal she felt as her father pushed her into the stasis pod, supposedly for her own good. When it ended, everyone was silent. Even Lance.

“My home solar system has been destroyed,” Allura said quietly, after they reached the end of it. “My father is dead. Our entire civilization is gone, because of—”

“Zarkon,” Shiro said, interrupting Allura in the middle of her sentence. “He’s the king of the Galra. I was his prisoner.”

Allura gasped. “He’s still alive? Galra have a long lifespan, but not that long. How?”

“I don’t know, but it’s true. He’s searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”

Allura hissed. “He’s searching for it because he knows it’s the only thing that can defeat him, and that’s exactly why we must find it before he does.”

 “Why?” Shiro asked.

“Because Zarkon himself was overshadowed 10,000 years ago. And Voltron can never fall into the hands of the Lone Power. Never.”

**

“First the paladins, then a resurgence of Altean energy? It seems like Alfor had planned for this eventuality.”

Zarkon sat in his throne, radiating power. “Nevertheless, I will wipe that race from the universe forever and take back Voltron. You,” he said, pointing to an underling. “Contact Sendak. Tell him he has the mission of a lifetime. Succeed in this, and he is guaranteed a spot in my council.”

Wizards were always a tricky bunch. Alfor thought he could stop him? It was too little, too late.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone prepares to head out in search of the lions.

“Wait, what’s this overshadowed thing?” Lance asked, confused. Everyone else was just staring at Allura in utter shock. Even Keith. It seemed like he was getting used to his internal Manual thing, and actually knew what that meant. Allura explained it to Lance, carefully, but Pidge wasn’t listening.

Overshadowed. Pidge had read about them, but had never met a person. A wizard, who was willing working for the Lone Power. A wizard, who was working with the enemy, who was going against their oaths.

And this Zarkon has been alive for ten thousand years. How much damage has he done to the universe? By how much has he sped up its inevitable demise?

Hunk, surprisingly enough, was the first to recover. “I think introductions are in order, then, I guess? Um. Hi. I’m Hunk, I’m on errantry, and I greet you. The small one over there with the glasses is Pidge, and the angry red one is Keith. He’s currently on Ordeal.”

Allura nodded. “And you,” she said, gesturing to Shiro, “are their leader, correct? You seem to be the most experienced of the four.”

“Hey! Why can’t I be their leader?” Lance yelped.

Shiro didn’t say anything. Shiro acted as if he heard nothing. He just stood there, silently gripping his prosthetic arm.

“Uh, yeah, that’s Shiro,” Hunk said eventually, not really sure what to do. “He’s usually more… leader-y? Anyway, Lance, the one who caught you, isn’t a wizard, but he knows the Speech, so we can communicate with that.”

Allura blinked. “Is the Speech not a standardized language on your planet?”

“Our planet, Earth, is still sevarfrith,” Pidge explained. “And we have yet to make contact with other species. Generally, only wizards are fluent in the Speech, with a few exceptions.” Such as Lance.

“I see. Well, I am Allura, acting Senior wizard for my planet. I am on errantry, and I greet you. Coran, over there, is another Altean. He has been my with my family since I was a child, and is a trusted advisor.” Coran gave an energetic, but practiced, bow.

Keith spoke up. “Not to be rude, but are you acting Senior for your planet because of your skill or because you’re the only one left?”

Allura glared at him. “The latter. I was in consideration before the war began. And I am not the only one left. Other Alteans must have escaped. Excluding the mice, of course.”

 “Yes, of course we do. Come out, little buddies.” Scurrying out came a small group of mice, obviously not from Earth because of their coloring. “They must have snuck in during all the chaos.”

“ _Do you have anything good to eat_?” one mouse asked, ears wiggling happily.  “ _It’s been 10,000 years. We’re a bit hungry_.” Much like the cats and dogs on their home planet, the words which the mouse said weren’t verbalized, but any wizard would be able to understand them.

Hunk bent down and scratched it behind the ear. “Oh, sorry little guy, I didn’t think to bring any food from Earth with me. We were in a bit of a hurry.”

All the mice sighed. “ _That means we’re stuck with the goo…_ ”

“The goo? What are you talking about?”

Coran perked up with interest. “They must be talking about the food processor in the castle! It provides a balanced meal, suited for any paladin.” A meal which apparently tasted horrible, based off the mice’s reaction.

Allura clapped her hands, bringing everyone’s attention back to her. “Now, with introductions out of the way, we need to get to work. In order to defeat Zarkon, we need the other lions. As acting Senior, I have a connection to all five lions, and therefore can locate them.” She pushed a few buttons, causing a display to appear in front of them.

Pidge looked at the display with curiosity. They didn’t recognize any of the nearby planets; it wasn’t clear how far Blue had taken them, and the map confirmed that they had covered a very, very large distance in a small period of time. All the planets were annotated with Speech terms, describing its name, size, and other important information.

“I can’t find the Red Lion; I seem to be thwarted by some outside force. Likely it’s in some area under the Lone Power’s control. The Black Lion is locked in this castle, and can only be accessed when all the other lions are present. I have, however, pinpointed where both the Yellow and Green Lion are located. We need to send people to retrieve them.”

“Um, not to be a downer, but are those lions protected by that weird force field protecting Blue? If so, how do we know who to send?” Hunk asked.

“There is a way to figure that out, of course. Your names in the Speech, please.”

It only took a few minutes for everyone to report their name to Allura. Surprisingly, it was Shiro who reported his name last. Apparently he was still recovering from the shock of learning the truth about Zarkon.

Allura looked over the names and frowned. “Apologies, Pidge, if I’ve used the wrong pronouns. In my haste, I simply assumed that all your people used the same pronoun.”

“Uh, what are you talking about, Allura?” Lance said.  “Pidge uses the same pronouns as everyone else here.”

“Not according to their name, no. It’s pretty clear here.”

Everyone turned to look at Pidge. They sighed, pushing their glasses up. “It’s… complicated,” Pidge said eventually. “I’ll tell you about it later, when we’re not trying to find robotic lions to fight the Lone Power.”

Lance pouted. “But Pidge, we were a team! You can tell us the truth.”

“What matters now,” Shiro said, interrupting Lance before he could go on a long speech, “is that we know what Pidge prefers, and Allura knows who to send to which lion.”

Allura nodded slightly, thanking Shiro for the opening. “The names made it clear. My people call the life force within people, the positive experiences which are at the core of Timeheart, quintessence. A paladin must embody the ideal of the lion they work with in, or else they will be unable to do their duty. And those qualities can be inferred from one’s name in the Speech.”

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. Shiro, you will partner with the Black Lion.”

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will partner with the Green Lion.”

 “The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you. Hunk, will lift the team up and hold them together.”

“The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its partner needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.”

“Hey,” Lance yelped, “what about Azura the Blue Lion? I mean, it probably takes the best flier out of the bunch—”

“I think,” Allura interrupted, “that I will let you figure that out, Lance. Since you are the best, after all.”

Pidge snickered. Lance glared at them. “Hey, I totally have the right to know what I represent! Especially since I’m not a wizard. All you guys have a leg up on me there.”

Keith smirked. “Is that just me, or did I hear you say that I was better than you?”

Lance glared at him. “Do you want to go, Keith?”

“Oh, it’s on. I bet I don’t even need wizardry to kick your ass.”

Shiro pulled them apart before they could even fight, and shut them up with a glare. Already living up to his role as a leader, it seemed.

“We don’t have time to spare,” Allura said. “Shiro, you will accompany Pidge to get the Green Lion. Keith, you will stay in the castle. If I am able to discover where the Red Lion is, we’ll send you out there right away. Which leaves Hunk and Lance to go find the Yellow Lion. While all lions are a built-in teleportation feature, it’s more of an emergency feature. The castle with handle most of the power costs… as long as it still has the resources. Coran?”

“Yes it does, Princess! It takes a lot to make wizardry fail, and ten thousand years wasn’t enough. We’ll have to run a diagnostic check of the mechanical functions of the castle to make sure they’re running properly, of course.”

“Later. We need to prioritize the lions first.” Allura turned to address Shiro. “Lance, you’ll take Hunk to the Yellow Lion with… Azura the Blue Lion. We’ll provide Pidge and Shiro with an appropriate ship to reach the Green Lion.”

Keith scowled. “What am I supposed to do?”

Shiro put a comforting hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Since you’re on Ordeal, why don’t you spend some time learning some useful wizardry? Allura could help you with that, considering how much experience she has.”

Allura held out a hand. Above her palm floated a small ball of light. “Our Manuals, as you call them, may be very different, but I assure you, I can be of great help.”

“And if you ever need a break,” Coran said, “you could always help me clean the castle!”

“… I think lessons are fine.”

Shiro nodded. “Good. Pidge, Hunk, Lance, let’s get going. We don’t have time to waste.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Pidge get closer to their lions, and the reality of the situation starts to hit home.

“You know what would be nice, Hunk? Theme music. Azura needs some amazing theme music.” Lance had switched back to English. He’ll probably get used to speaking in the Speech, but for now, he’ll take a break whenever he can.

Hunk scratched his head. “Do you want Blue to blast music in battle? Because that makes no sense.”

Lance sighed. “No, Hunk. I too took all the same science classes as you did. I would blast the music inside the cockpit, to pump myself up. What do you think would be better, metal or rock?”

Hunk shook his head. “How far are we from the planet?” He said instead, blatantly changing the subject.

Lance looked at the screen. “We have a few minutes, at least. So now that we’re alone…”

“Lance, whatever you’re about to say, the answer is no.”

Lance scowled, though Hunk couldn’t see it from where he was seated. “Not that. I was wondering if you could help me contact my family.”

“Wait, why?”

“Really, Hunk? I may not be a wizard, but this paladin thing doesn’t seem to be a short-term thing at all. I mean, defeating a ten-thousand-year old wizard who’s working for an evil Power intent on destroying the universe? Who knows when we’re going to see Earth again? And it’s not like my family is used to be disappearing for long periods of time, unlike your family.”

“Well, uh, it’s not like I went on off-planet missions a lot. So, no, they’re not used to it.”

“But we need still to tell them something! How do you think they’re reacting, with us disappearing after a mysterious ship crashed in the Garrison?” Lance could just imagine his family reacting. His family praying for his safety. His siblings doing everything in their power to figure out where he was. No one would think that he was with a bunch of wizards in a far part of the universe. And there was no way for them to find out, if he didn’t tell them.

Hunk was quiet for a few seconds. “We’ll have to talk to Allura about it, because I’m not sure how I could do it without support. The castle might make it easier to communicate with Earth, considering how far it is.”

An idea struck Lance. “Hey, Azura! You could totally help me, right? You can do all this cool wizardry stuff, so there must be something you can do.”

Lance had only been a paladin for a short while, so his communication skills with Azura needed some work. He always felt like he was on the cusp of really being able to talk to her, but never able to truly get there. Right now, they were communicating mostly through emotions, emotions which were becoming clearer and clearer, more like words, every time they talked. The emotions Azura was sending over to him right now were not good.

Hunk frowned. “What’s wrong, Lance?”

Lance sighed. “She can’t help me with that, or at least not yet. God, I wish I could talk to her better. It feels like there’s some barrier between us.”

“Lance, you’ve only been a paladin for, what, two hours? And you’ve been thrown into an intergalactic war on top of that. Considering the situation, you’re doing amazingly well.”

Lance smiled. “Thanks, Hunk.” He turned his attention back to the screen, and frowned. “Hey, didn’t Allura say that the planets where the lions were located were peaceful?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Then why are there Galra ships surrounding the planet where the Yellow Lion is?”

**

When Allura said the planet was peaceful, she wasn’t lying. Shiro and Pidge were being led to where the Green Lion was by a large, amicable sloth-like creature. Shiro chatted with her a bit while Pidge absorbed their surroundings. Turns out the sloth was happy to take them to the temple where the Green Lion resided.

“I never expected to find the Green Lion like this,” Pidge said, pushing their glasses up. “Though I guess making a temple for a giant green robotic lion makes some sense.”

Shiro chuckled. “It seems like the humans who found Blue treated it in a similar manner, based off those cave carvings.”

“True.”  Pidge was silent for a bit, as if they were thinking. “Speaking of Earth…are you planning on contacting people on Earth anytime soon?”

Shiro frowned at Pidge’s question. “Why are you bringing this up now?”

Pidge scratched their head. “Oh, well, I may be a bit less experienced to you, but this doesn’t feel like some short-term errantry project, which is going to end in a month or so. I think we’re going to be here for a while. Don’t you want to tell your family that you’re okay?”

Shiro blinked. He hadn’t thought about it—or maybe he avoided thinking about it. He needed to keep moving or else he would collapse. And he couldn’t do that yet.

But Pidge had a point. His family already thought he was dead for a year. And who knows what the Garrison was going to tell them, after Keith breaking them out. They would probably be angry—Shiro remembered how angry they were when he told them about wizardry—that he didn’t tell them immediately, but he could deal with it.

“You have a point, Pidge. I’ll talk to Allura when we get back to see how sophisticated their communication station is. She might be able to help us. What about you, Pidge?”

Pidge scrunched up. “My mother doesn’t need to know anything.”

Shiro blinked. “What about your father?”

“He’s… not around anymore.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Pidge.”

“It looks like we’re almost at the temple,” Pidge said, ignoring his apology. They took a deep breath. “Allura isn’t wrong, right? The Green Lion will accept me, right?”

Shiro looked at Pidge closely. They were a wizard. They were used to being in stressful situations. But they were still young, and being so far from home would shake anyone.

“Our commander on the Kerberos Mission is the smartest man I ever met,” Shiro said, “and he always said, "If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great. So. Go. Be great.”

Pidge nodded, and walked towards the temple carefully. Then stopped. Calling the building a temple when giant tree roots had grown around the building, preventing anyone from entering, felt like bit of a stretch.

“Um. How am I supposed to get to the lion, anyway?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IDK if this is ever addressed in Seasons 3 and 4, but everyone seems to handle the whole 'we can never talk to our family' pretty well. So, thus, I bring it up here. It's a bit different with wizards, since the YW canon has established a few ways for wizards to stay in contact with their family during errantry (at least, when the family knows about the situation), so I'm trying to reflect that change here.


End file.
